Saturday, January 28, 2012

Breaking the Silence & "Shame Shame Shame"

Depression.

PubMed Health says: “Depression
may be described as feeling sad, blue, unhappy, miserable, or down in the dumps.
Most of us feel this way at one time or another for short periods. True clinical depression is a mood disorder in which
feelings of sadness, loss, anger, or frustration interfere with every day life
or longer.”

WebMD says: “When you
have depression, it’s more than feeling sad. Intense feelings of sadness and other
symptoms, like losing interest in things you enjoy, may last for a while.
Depression is a medical illness, not a sign of weakness. And it’s treatable.”

I will be referencing to the information I gather on these
two sites throughout this series of entries on the topic of depression. I don’t
want to make this like a research paper and bombard y’all with references…so!
If you are interested in where the information is coming from more
specifically, just google “depression” and links to PubMed and WebMD will be at
the top of the page!

I’ve got a rough outline so far of how I’m going to talk
about this with y’all…I kind of scribbled it down pretty quickly because I was
eager to start discussing this! Definitely not an outline my college self would
have been happy with lol:) I’m going to go ahead and kind of let y’all know how
it’s going to play out…but it’s subject to change…and please forgive the
roughness of the outline!

*My story (in summary)

*College paper

*Are you depressed? (clinical,
temporary, family history, etc.)

*Doctor and treatment (meds,
alternative treatment, lifestyle, etc.)

*Stopped treatment and feeling
depressed again

*Living with depression

Like I said…kind of rough! Throughout
this entire thing, something I’m going to emphasize over and over is this: IT’S
A PROCESS! Everything about depression
from asking the questions to receiving the diagnosis to seeking treatment and
every little step and moment in between is a process. The key, and something
else I will emphasize over and over is this: DON’T GIVE UP!

"Shame Shame Shame"

I wanted to share this drawing
because I feel like maybe this is how people feel about depression. I was
inspired to share my thoughts, stories, and experiences about and with
depression because of some recent discussions I’ve had. What started these
discussions was an approach that started kind of like, “I need to talk to
someone and I don’t know who to talk to.” Or “I am not good about talking about
this with anyone…it’s hard for me to open up.” Or “I don’t know what others
will think if I talk about this with them.” These aren’t direct quotes but
rather a general summary of how we started talking about depression. I never
felt like any of these people felt ashamed…but I wondered if maybe there was a subconscious
feeling that neither the person nor anyone has ever been aware of with this
medical condition! I also thought to share this drawing because of the sadness
that I felt when I created it…my shame came from other actions that came from
depression…but not depression itself. However, I wanted to have a visual for y’all
of the depth of sadness that comes with depression…the feeling of solitude
inside one’s self…the feeling of drowning in one’s own tears. As a person with
depression, if you keep that inside you and don’t seek help…even if just starting
a conversation with a friend…it will get worse and worse! My thought for today
is this: BREAK YOUR SILENCE! Emerge from that solitude and lost place inside
your mind and confront what you are feeling as the possibility of a medical
condition! There is also the possibility that what you are feeling is temporary
rather than clinical…but you still have to talk about it…you mustn’t keep it
locked up. Whether it’s clinical or not, you cannot just “get through it!” You
will have to seek help and treatment and again IT’S A PROCESS but DON’T GIVE
UP!

I don’t want this first entry to
get too long and wordy, so I’m going to begin wrapping it up. Next time I will
tell you more about my own story and share a paper I wrote in college. Please don’t
wait on me to write this all out if you are questioning whether or not you are
depressed. Go ahead and call your doctor…start your journey towards treatment
and feeling better…look to me as someone on the path with you. We are all in
this together! As I continue writing about this medical condition, hopefully we’ll
all learn something and feel motivated to take a proactive approach to
depression. And remember: